The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-05-07
THE SHEPHERD.

While the children of Israel were groaning
under the oppression of Egypt and being
prepared by this providential experience to
accept q deliverance, GoD had already pre-
pared the way for their deliverance, and had
not only chosen Moses to be the saviour of
his people, but had trained him for the exc
cution of his designs. Their way to the
promised land must be through the wilder
ness of Arabia, where the tribes of indian
found pasturage for their focks; and they
and their deliverer must trust in COP. For
forty years Moses as a shepherd led bis ia
ther-in- laws focks to the wells of water and
fertile valleys and mountain slopes of this
grand and desoate region. He not only
learned the geography of the country and
became familiar with its nomadic inhabit-
ants, but he had abundant and favorable OPP
portunity for reflection and for the maturing
of that wisdom and knowledge he had learned
in Egypt into practical and effective forms
for the promotion of the Divine purpose and
the accomplishment of the Divine promise
concerning His afflicted people. Here, if
anywhere, the memory of the home of his
infancy and the pious impressions therein
made would arise, and the Cop of his fathers
would appear to his devout and reverent
thought And here, too, under the influence
of such impressions and divine oommunions,
and the reports that may have come to him
from time to time of his suffering race,
would his resolutions be formed and his pur-
pose determined, and the plans of his future
life be matured. As King David was after
ward trained for his high calling of GoD by
his vocation as shepherd, so Moses was
finally qualified to be the leader and guide of
the chosen people in their preparation to be-
come the kingdom of GOD.
When Moses was tending literally feed
ing) the focks of Jethro, his father-in. law,
he led them on one occasion beyond the des-
ert to the mountains of Horeb. The PENN
sula of Arabia between the two arms of the
Red Sea is designated. Sinai, the Mount
of GoD," where Cop afterward appeared
to Moses and revealed unto him His law
for the government of His people, is one
of the peaks of Horeb. The account was
written after the place had become sacred to
Israel, and was truly "mountain of GoD."
The whole region was awe-inspiring, and the
mind and occupation of Moses were favora-
BILE to high spiritual experiences. "Day unto
day, and night unto night" would speak
voiceless language to his contemplative soul.
The affection of his people, the power of
their oppressors, and the might of GoD were
themes that would engage his mind and
heart. Under such circumstances and inhu-
ences what powers might be developed in a
man like Moses in forty years!
The influence of such district on a mind
like that of Moses must have been great. No
region more favorable to the attainment of
a lofty conception of the Almighty could have
been found. In lofty, spiritual
nature, like that of Moses, the solemn still
ness of the mountains and the boundless
sweep of the daily and nightly heavens would
efface the thought of man and fill the soul
with the majesty of COP. AS he meditated
on the possible deliverance of his people, the
lonely vastness would raise him above anx-
ious contrasts of their weakness compared
with the power of Egypt, which might have
paralyzed resolution and hidden hope de-
spair. What was man whose days we're a
handbreadth and whose foundation was in
the dust, before the mighty Creator of heaven
and earth-the Rock of Israel! In
this sanctuary of the hills, awaiting the time
when the advancing purposes of GOD had
ripened Israel for the great movement of its
deliveranee, and, meanwhile, unconsciously
preparing for the mighty task before him,
Moses spent, as st. Stephen informs us, no
fewer than forty years. His ganderings
would make him acquainted with every val
ley, plain, gorge hill and mountain of the
whole region; with its population, whether
native or of the Egyptian mines; with every
spring and well, and with all the resources OF
every kind offered by every spot;-an educa-
ton of supreme importance toward fitting
him to guide bis race when rescued from
Egypt, to the safe shelter and holy sanet-
uaries of this predestined scene of their Iona
encampment. Still more, in those calm
years every problem to be solved in the
organization of a people would rise success
sively in his mind and find its solution; anC
above all, his own soul must have been dis
ciplined and purified by isolation from thu
world, and closer and more continual com
0'hle."